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An Illustrated Timeline of the IRS Targeting Scandal

With new details emerging every day about the extent of the IRS targeting of conservative groups, FreedomWorks Creative Manager Matt Battaglia breaks down the timeline of events. Click 'read more' for images!

The condensed timeline, largely based on an awesome compilation by blogger Doug Ross:

13 May, 2013 - President Obama claims to have learned about the IRS targeting the previous Friday, "on Friday, from news reports".

15 May, 2013 - Acting Director Steven Miller is announced to be resigning in June, 2013 (when he was going to be leaving anyways).

17 May, 2013 - The New York Times reports that the White House learned of the IRS targeting five months prior to the election.

22 May, 2013 - Lois Lerner gives an opening statemen in testimony before Congress, but pleads the fifth and refuses to answer questions.

23 May, 2013 - Lois Lerner placed on administrative leave.

Note that in addition to IRS Director Shulman testifying before Congress that no targeting was happening, top officials Steven Miller and Lois Lerner were both repeatedly specifically asked about the targeting of conservative groups. Neither one revealed the investigation that they knew to be ongoing.

If you or your group was targeted or subjected to harrassment or special targeting by the IRS, share your story at irstarget.com!

There really are no words to describe how low I feel our country has sank. It's just so outrageous to believe that a sitting President would take the chances this one is taking! I guess when you believe you are totally insulated by the various czars and gang brothers, there's not too much that one would worry about, obviously.
I so love this country and it just breaks my heart to see how corrupt the government has become. Even more heartbreaking is how the seem to be winning by their dirty Chicago style politics.
I'm just one little old lady here in the woods, but one thing I will never stop doing and that is PRAYING FOR MY BELOVED AMERICA. I beg all you GOOD folks out there to do the same. Prayer is power, and IT WORKS!!!

Democracy and Power 115: Other Power Players - BureaucratsOur carefully constructed system of checks and balances is being negated by the rise of a fourth branch, an administrative state of sprawling departments and agencies that govern with increasing autonomy and decreasing transparency.- Jonathan Turley, Shapiro professor of public interest law at George Washington University.

The recent spate of scandals involving the federal government should not surprise anyone. While it's important that bad actors in government be held to account, the system corrupts even the best people. If all that comes of this exposed corruption is the firing of a few public employees, nothing will change, and those seeking power over their fellow man will be emboldened.

On today’s edition of the FreedomCast, Jim Geraghty of the National Review Online joins me to discuss the Obama Administration’s scandals, the coming reformation of the Republican party, and how Congress hides the really insidious violations of your liberty in gigantic pieces of legislation.

Personal Freedom and Prosperity 101: Personal PowerThe distinctive principle of Western social philosophy is individualism.It aims at the creation of a sphere in which the individual is free to think, to choose, and to act without being restrained by the interference of the social apparatus of coercion and oppression, the State. All the spiritual and material achievements of Western civilization were the result of the operation of this idea of liberty. —Ludwig von Mises

The IRS has been in the news a lot lately, but with all the hubbub of corruption and scandal, it’s easy to forget that they are also the agency set to be put in charge of enforcing and implementing the Affordable Care Act, colloquially known as ObamaCare, when it goes into full effect later this year. Here, then, are the top ten reasons why this should not be allowed to happen.

A weak narrative pushed by administration allies that the IRS was merely doing its job in investigating Tea Party groups in 2010 through 2012 has been all but abandoned, now. Facts having intervened, and it looks like the Obama administration will throw some IRS staff under the bus and hope the scandal ends. It won't, because the problem is not that people were weak, but that government is too strong.